Muslim Brotherhood “co-existence” manifesto a sign of the times

During the recording of the song “Walad al-Huda” (“The Prophet Was Born”), which Umm Kulthum performed at the Prophet’s birthday celebration in Cairo’s Ahly Club in November 1949, an incident occurred that the composer Riyad al-Sunbati only recounted some 14 years later.In the middle of rehearsal, the diva was interrupted by a messenger from the royal palace objecting to one of Ahmed Shawqi’s verses praising the Prophet Muhammad: The socialists – you are their imam, Were it not for their partisanship and excess. King Farouk, so the story goes, saw the line as an endorsement of a political current he despised. The idea that “socialists” could claim the Prophet as their leader was, for the monarch, a step too far.Only a few years later, Mustafa al-Sibai (19…